Rehan Great Investment Race: June was yet another turbulent month for global markets and, while the portfolios of those participating in the Rehab Great Investment Race fared slightly better than during May, the value of the total fund was still down.
The combined loss for June was €19,976, with some participants suffering more severely than others. And, though there were significant shifts in the monthly performance rankings, overall there were few changes in the positioning, with AIB Investment Managers (AIBIM) holding on yet again to the top spot despite putting on a poor show during the month.
On a monthly basis, the top performance came from Oppenheim Investment Managers, the only fund to record any increase in value in June. Richard Dunn, the fund's manager, attributed the 1.1 per cent gain to the volatility of the markets. Instead of sitting tight and waiting for the rocky times to pass, he decided to play the market at its own game, buying shares in Sea Drill, a Norwegian oil company, and selling them after they had added 7 per cent.
The gains made on this transaction helped offset the declines seen in the rest of his portfolio that, during June, comprised Datalex, Antofagasta, a copper mining group, and Game Technology.
Overall, Oppenheim stands in third place, climbing one place from its position at the end of May.
Irish Life Investment Managers put in the second-best performance during June, with a loss of only 0.2 per cent ensuring that it held on to the second spot overall.
Manager Séamus Magner minimised his losses through active trading in several stocks, buying and selling Party Gaming and Anglo Irish during the month.
He sold out of drinks and snacks maker C&C, which has had a particularly good run recently on the back of the successful rollout of its Magners cider in the UK and also made money on the sale of Anglo Irish stock.
Magner also added Arcelor to his portfolio, ending the month holding the steelmaker, Independent News & Media and drug group Novartis.
Bank of Ireland Asset Managers came in third in the monthly rankings, pushing it up one place in the overall ratings to fourth place as Chris Reilly's one-stock holding in US drugmaker Pfizer minimised his losses to only 0.5 per cent in June.
This left Reilly with an overall return of 1.8 per cent as he stuck with Pfizer into June.
Despite putting in a poor performance over the month, with a decline of 4.5 per cent in June, AIBIM managed to hold on to its top position in the overall rankings with an total return of 48.7 per cent.
Lance Graham said his portfolio had suffered from some profit-taking as he held steady with the same three stocks with which he started the month, namely CSR, a bluetooth firm, drug giant Glaxosmithkline and Edinburgh-based microchip developer Wolfson Microelectronic. He said he remains happy with the stocks' performance overall.
Meanwhile, Roy Asher at Hibernian Investment Managers bettered his monthly performance, losing 6.3 per cent in June, less than half of the decline he saw in May.
However, in the overall rankings Hibernian slipped one place to fifth position as the consecutive monthly declines pushed his total return to a loss of 2.7 per cent.
Asher attributed the declines to the fact that the market didn't share the same faith in his portfolio as he did.
KB Homes was a particular drag on the value, dropping 10 per cent over the month as the homebuilding sector in the US fell out of favour. Asher says he is hopeful the stock will see some upside once the US Federal Reserve stops raising interest rates.
During the month he sold out of one stock, Southern Copper, which he felt was showing too much volatility. Oil services group Petrofac, the other stock he held going into July, declined 7.7 per cent during the month of June, but Asher says he remains comfortable holding the stock, which he believes is trading well and has a good earnings outlook.
At the bottom of the overall rankings, things remained steady with James McSweeney presiding over a 6.8 per cent monthly decline in Setanta Asset Management's portfolio. Since the start of the race, the fund's value is down 5.3 per cent.
McSweeney described June as a very volatile month as he managed to lose money on Wesco, mining equipment provider Joy Global and bluetooth group CSR despite holding high levels of cash at different points during the month.
Going into July he held three stocks, Newcourt, Daimler and AES Corp as well as almost onethird of his portfolio in cash.